27 Club @ The Fantail At Gluttony, Adelaide 17/2/2024
A show must be good if it’s in its fourth Adelaide Fringe season! It may have been created for the Fringe but the 27 Club has grown and exceeded expectations where it has now been toured around the country. When you have a cast of Australia’s best rockers of course its going to be a show of pure rock, heart and soul.
Australia’s Queen of rock ‘n roll Sarah McLeod (The Superjesus), Kevin Mitchell (Jebediah and Bob Evans), the extraordinary Carla Lippis and Dusty Lee Stephenson from the Wanderers round up the big names backed by some of the best muso’s around, Milush Piochaud on bass, Danny Leo on drums, Jack Strempel on keys, Cam Blokland on second guitar along with crowd warmer Winston Howard who played the part of legendary American blues performer Robert Leroy Johnson.
This show has all the hits from artists who have become part of the infamous ’27 club’; Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Amy Winehouse. With such a collection of hits between all four artists how can you choose which songs to play? All the classics are there like Hendrix’s Voodoo Child, Foxy Lady, Joplin’s Piece of my Heart, Mercedes Benz, Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and Lithium, Morrison’s Light My Fire, Roadhouse Blues, Winehouse’s Back to Black, Rehab and much, much more. Let’s just say, you wont be disappointed!
Mitchell’s performance of Smells Like Teen Spirit channelled the heart ‘n soul of Kurt Cobain, McLeod’s version of Joplin’s Cry Baby combined Joplin’s raspiness with her own vocal fierceness, Stephenson oozes Morrison’s charm in Roadhouse Blues backed with his own vocal prowess and Lippis gives the performance of the night with her sultry and poignant version of Nirvana’s Lithium.
They’ve performed together so many times they just intertwine so well especially during shared vocals of some songs. The comradery between the main stars and house band flows like a sweet fountain of rock chocolate. I saw the show last year and I have to say this year they took it up a few notches to another level. The banter and energy between everyone is even tighter it’s really pure rock addiction.
It’s the rock show of all rock shows once again at Adelaide Fringe. The combination of song, storytelling and pure old school Rock ‘n Roll is the perfect mix to understand the complicated stories of the ’27 club’ artists and why they died so young. It’s more than a rock show. As McLeod screamed “Greatest show on earth!” Grab Ya Tix! and find out!
Fringe review by Anastasia Lambis
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